1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an IT resource management system for managing IT resources owned by a plurality of operating entities, for example, as in an Internet data center (hereinafter, referred to as an “IDC”).
2. Description of Related Art
Regarding an information technology (IT) system forming the foundation of the economy and society, there is a requirement for stability, robustness, and economic efficiency. In recent years, in order to maintain the function of an IT system that is being sophisticated more and more in response to the change in an administration environment while keeping stability and robustness, the technique of autonomous processing of the system is becoming indispensable. The autonomous processing refers to that a system takes over a part of determination, which has been conducted by human beings. The autonomous processing enhances the ability of the system to respond to a load increase, a failure, and the like, and the adjustability of the system with respect to the change in a business environment.
For example, in the IDC, there is a requirement for an autonomous control for the optimum use of an IT resource. The IDC is a facility for taking care of an IT resource of a server of a customer, a storage, a network, and the like, and supplies a connection line to the Internet, maintenance operation service, and the like. FIG. 18 is a schematic view showing a system configuration of a general IDC. In the IDC, the operations of IT resources 91, 92, and 93 of a plurality of corporations A, B, and C that are customers are managed. The owners of the plurality of IT resources 91, 92, and 93 that are managed in the IDC are individual corporations A, B, and C, respectively.
In particular, the IDC capable of increasing/decreasing an IT resource assigned for each corporation in accordance with needs on demand is called an IDC of a utility system. By setting the IDC to be of a utility system, an IT resource of each customer can be used efficiently in accordance with a changing business environment.
Setting the IDC to be of a utility system has been studied on the precondition that an IT resource owned by each corporation that is a customer of an IDC is used. Therefore, the technical study has been mainly conducted on the precondition of the direct use of an IT resource between the individual corporation and the IDC.
FIG. 19 is a schematic view showing a system configuration of an IDC of a utility system. An IDC managing part 94 manages the operation by monitoring IT resources 96, 97 of corporations D, E that are customers. For example, upon detecting the state where the IT resource 96 of the corporation D is insufficient, the IDC managing part 94 lends an IT resource corresponding to the shortage from a server pool 95 that is an IT resource of the IDC to the corporation D. Therefore, it is necessary that sufficient IT resources should be prepared in the server pool 95. On the other hand, for example, even in the case where the IT resource 97 of the corporation E is in excess, since the corporation E owns the IT resource 97, the IDC managing part 94 cannot use the surplus of the IT resource 97. More specifically, there arises a situation in which an IT resource is not used effectively.
On the other hand, for example, as disclosed by JP 2003-124976 A, a method for effectively using an IT resource in the IDC has been proposed. According to this method, when the load of a user varies in a data center, the assignment of a resource with respect to the user is dynamically changed in accordance with the load.